Voyage to a Forgotten Sun

by Donald J. Pfeil

vg++ 1st Ballantine 1974 edition paperback, In stock shipped from our UK warehouse -

Genres: Science Fiction

181 pages, Paperback

First published December 12, 1974

About the author

Used These Alternate Names: Donald Pfeil , Don Pfeil

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a space opera (the cover calls it a rousing one) with a YA feel by Donald J. Pfeil, who was the editor of Vertex magazine for three years. It was his first novel and isn't bad until the weird and contradictory ending. I thought he was a pretty good editor, but this isn't particularly well written.

[CJ Beshara · Rating 2 out of 5]

An entertaining adventure across space bogged down by the usual suspects - misogyny, clumsy characterization, plot contrivances, and poorly realized political thought. Topped off by a morally abhorrent ending that the author, confusingly, tries to play off as triumphant.

I found the prose to be easily digestible and the whole story moves quickly. Certain scenes stood out as poignant. The entire sequence where Marta and Zim visit the waterfall was surprisingly beautiful and evocative, but as with the rest of the book, it was consistently spoiled by bits of thought and description that are not acceptable to a modern reader. Additionally there are elements of the plot and characterization that were so bad as to be laughable. I enjoyed myself well enough, but the flaws were really distracting.

Amazing cover design though, both front and back. Seriously, why can’t most modern covers attain the level of design achieved by a $1.25 paperback from 1975? I will forever be shaking my fist, it seems.

[Todd Richardson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Published in 1975 and it shows. Voyage to a Forgotten Sun is billed on the cover as "a rousing space opera". They could have saved themselves the first two words. Its biggest saving grace is that it's a very short book. However, even by space opera standards, it is hamfisted, seriously heavy in exposition and florid description, and has no likeable characters at all. The ending almost descends to the same level of unreality enjoyed by Norman Spinrad's The Iron Dream. According to one web result I found for the author (on the Science Fiction Encyclopedia, which I didn't even know about until this search), his work was "young adult deliberately (and enjoyably) outmoded space opera idiom."

I believe the "deliberately" part.

[Dirk Wartman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very dated, but that's why I read it. It didn't disappoint - I was having a rough month and a 2/5 star SF caper was what I was after. So if you're looking for a 2/5 star SF romp, then consider a 5/5. If you're looking for a 5/5 SF masterpiece, then consider it a 2/5. I'm sure that makes sense.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a perfectly enjoyable, b-movie sci-fi novel, with some creative ideas given the time period it was published, with the obvious caveats of this era's inability to write anything sane about women.

In these pulpy one-off scifi stories, the less an introduced technology is explained the better. For example (minor plot spoiler involving technology): I personally loved the concept of a split brain computer that literally can go insane and needs a computer therapist to fix. It's modes of thinking like this that are difficult to replicate with our modern perspective of where the progression of technology actually went. And so I really do love reading any effort to predict future technology, even if it's so far off the mark.

I even kind of enjoyed the quaint political theory the author was happy to delve into. And I would have loved to give this a 3 star review, until about the last 10 pages the book goes full mask off and, as another reviewer put it, presents some serious fascist views as triumphant. The hard swerve is honestly kind of jaw dropping, and hard to justify a higher review score. But I don't read these kinds of books for their moral lessons. Treat it like fast food and you'll be perfectly happy reading.

[Marc Goldstein · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this one out of morbid curiosity. The plot follows our reluctant anti-hero's mission to return the President of Earth home before a psychotic megalomaniac establishes himself as world dictator. Spoiler: once restored to power, the President's first act is to dissolve the government, declare himself dictator for life, and invoke manifest destiny to justify humanity's further expansion into the universe. And our protagonist thinks this is all jim-dandy. With an ending this tone deaf I have to wonder: is this satire? Is it a deconstruction of space opera tropes? Or is it actually pro-fascist propaganda? I combed the text for traces of irony or a coherent political thesis and found neither. I did find plenty of evidence for a third possibility: storytelling incompetence. The characterization is terrible, the narration and dialogue are laden with pointless exposition -- why bother establishing rules if you aren't going to play with them? This isn't a good story. I just read C.J. Cherryh and Julian May, so I know that if you are in the mood for space opera there's much better material than this out there. I can only recommend it as a hate-read.

[Luca Gonella · Rating 2 out of 5]

Classico Urania di fascia medio-bassa, con una trama scontata e pochi spunti narrativi.

[Borja Buzón · Rating 1 out of 5]

Totalmente prescindible.

[David Pignatelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

La trama sembrava molto avvincente e sarebbe potuta essere articolata in modo molto più approfondito, piena di spunti e bei personaggi, che restano però superficiali.
L’autore, che usa un bel linguaggio, diretto, si perde, invece, inutilmente in lunghissime descrizioni tecniche dell’astronave e del viaggio spaziale, molto belle se avesse contemporaneamente approfondito la trama del romanzo e le caratterizzazioni dei personaggi.
Inoltre finisce con un elogio del totalitarismo come unica forza che attraverso la guerra e la conquista può riscattare la “razza umana”. Squallido.